Little Bird
by HecateA
Summary: In which Miranda finds a little baby bird with a little broken wing in the midst of camp's chaos, among other things. Oneshot. Day 2 of Femslash February.


**Hi! My username of choice may give it away, but I reeeeally like the goddess Hecate (both in historical reality and in the world of PJO)- so her kids are super interesting to me.** **So here is Femslash February Number 2 to try and stay on track with the calendar! I'm going to promise to be good for at least the first week, without making any promises about anything else... I hope you enjoy this story!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

* * *

 **Day: 2**

 **Situation: Person A adopts a pet**

 **Fluff: Hugs**

 **Angst: Illness **

* * *

**Little Bird**

* * *

 _If we take this bird in  
With its broken leg  
We could nurse it  
She said  
Come inside  
For a little lie down with me  
If you fall asleep  
It wouldn't be the worst thing_

-Little Bird, Ed Sheeran

* * *

"Hey," Miranda said. "Remember me?"

Lou Ellen looked up at the smiling girl in front of her. She was about to immediately dismiss her for the oozing energy and optimism and preppyness- for god's sake, the girl had two French braids in her blonde hair and a hair elastic bunched up the extra fabric of her Camp t-shirt. There were friendship bracelets around her ankles and a worn out daisy pattern on her flip-flops. Her green eyes were just too twinkly. But then she remembered her.

"Yes," Lou Ellen said. "Miranda Gardiner. We were in Hermes for a while, together. Before…" She let it trail.

"Before you moved," Miranda filled in.

"What?" Lou Ellen asked.

"We were in Cabin 11 together for about three months unclaimed, until Chris Rodriguez left with a group of unclaimed kids, and you moved," Miranda said. "I was claimed by Demeter about a week later, I heard that you're a daughter of Hecate after all? The new counselor for their cabin, even."

Lou Ellen couldn't help it. She laughed.

"Moved," she repeated. "Moved… you know that's the single nicest way anyone has ever referred to treason and abandonment and betrayal in the history of treason and abandonment and betrayal- and that's a _long_ history."

"Well, maybe I'm the single nicest person you've talked to at camp so far," Miranda said. "I mean, what am I, the second person you've talked to?"

"Actually, yes," Lou Ellen said.

"Oh," Miranda said. "Well, welcome to Camp. Umm, you look kind of pale and I think you always were, but you're scrawny too."

"Magic takes calories which army rations don't really have," Lou Ellen said. "Or that they didn't want to give us. Exploited labour is easy labour."

"Oh," Miranda said. "Well, I have a secret word so that the harpies will let me to go into the kitchen any time. Are you still obsessed with rice pudding? I bet they'll make you some."

"I'm not hungry," Lou Ellen said.

"Oh," Miranda said. "Well, have you dropped by the camp store for toiletries? I'm guessing you don't have your own, and I find that washing my hair just makes me feel way more human."

"Highly chemical things disbalance our magic," Lou Ellen said. "This place is… new. I remember you and I remember where the store is and everything, but it's new."

"My cabin makes all-natural soaps and things," Miranda said. "Come."

She held out a hand. There was dirt under her nails and someone had doodled a heart on every knuckle. So preppy.

Lou Ellen took her hand and followed her.

* * *

"It's a camp fire," Miranda whispered in Lou Ellen's ear. "It won't be any fun if you don't sing."

"I'm not sure that it will be if I do," Lou Ellen said.

"Then at least clap your hands."

"I'm not sure that it will-"

"Lou Ellen, I said _clap,"_ Miranda said taking Lou Ellen by the wrists and smashing her hands against one another, like a child playing with a doll. "See? It's already funner!"

Lou Ellen didn't dignify that with a comment, but when Miranda arched an eyebrow and started bellowing words at the top of her lungs, then she smiled.

"I like your smile," Miranda said.

"I'm glad," Lou Ellen said.

"You shouldn't be," Miranda said. "That just means I'll try to make you smile more. And I'm _annooooying_ when I try to make you happy."

"Yes you are."

"Hey! You were supposed to disagree with that!"

"But you are."

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not!"

Miranda won not because of reason or logic or strong, steady arguments- but because tickling.

* * *

Miranda burst into Cabin 20.

People did not burst into Cabin 20.

The children of Hecate looked at Miranda like she had fallen to earth in a shiny metal saucer.

"Hi," she said breathlessly. "Sorry. Umm…. I was talking to Chris Rodriguez and he said that children of Hecate aren't exactly normal in mortal biological makeup and that you're all different from one another, and so it's hard to measure what everyone's limits are- but I think that Lou Ellen needs some food. Now I know that she may not be in human shape and it's kind of gloomy in here, but I would like to know where she is."

A very small and very confused brother named Callister gulped and pointed to a bed tucked halfway into the wall. Miranda knelt next to the bunk. A hunch of a girl was curled up in there.

"Lou Ellen," Miranda said. "Lou…"

"I can't sleep."

"What?"

"I can't sleep," Lou said.

"That's alright," Miranda said. "That's alright. But I'm sure that eating or drinking may help, your body is probably in shock- nobody's seen you in days."

"I can't sleep," Lou said. "The nightmares are so bad. But it's not because I did something wrong. I was a soldier. I had orders. I had orders and then I would have food and water and they would leave the little ones alone and they would give me water and I never had enough water…"

"Lou, let's go get you some water now," Miranda said.

"I need to sleep because it's not my fault," Lou Ellen said. "That the things we did, we did…"

"Okay, Lou," Miranda said. "Okay. I was hoping to get you out of the cabin today, but if you could switch onto your side that would be great."

She needed a hand to do it, but Lou Ellen rolled onto her side and Miranda trickled some water into her mouth.

"I can't sleep and it's not my fault," Lou Ellen said.

"Of course not," Miranda said. "Here have some more."

She turned around. "How long has she been like this? Her body's practically in shock…"

The cabin looked back at her, mostly blankly.

"We shared an orange on Monday," a little girl with big yellow, cat-like eyes said. "Lou Ellen made us do it. Everybody had a piece. Then she just started falling asleep, saying that she was exhausted. There's a protection spell around her bunk so that nobody would bother her."

"I can't sleep," Lou Ellen said.

"So why can I get close?" Miranda asked. She felt Lou Ellen shift under her hand. "Hush, Lou, have some more water… that's all you really need to do, okay? Water will make you better. It'll help."

"Help," Lou Ellen said quietly.

"Yup," Miranda said. "Help."

* * *

Lou Ellen bumped into Miranda as she walked to the dining hall.

"Oh, sorry," Miranda said.

"Sorry- Miranda. You were actually the person I was looking for right now," Lou Ellen said. "I, umm… Okay, I put a new shirt on and it's, umm, it's buttoned right. And see, if you pinch my skin it pinkens up really quickly and that means I'm hydrated. And my cabin just bulk-ordered multivitamins and protein bars and energy drinks from the camp store and Jake made me this watch that reminds me to eat. I'm okay."

"That's really good," Miranda said.

"Right," Lou Ellen said. "So you don't need to worry about me."

"Okay," Miranda said.

"What you're seeing now, it isn't my regular. It's not normal," Lou Ellen said. "I'm not helpless."

"Oh no," Miranda said. "That's not what I think…"

"Okay good," Lou Ellen said. The watch beeped.

"Is that food or water?" Miranda asked.

Lou Ellen looked at her wrist, unsure.

"Let's go for both," Miranda said. "Come on."

* * *

"This is silly."

"This is _fun,"_ Miranda said.

"It's pointless."

"Which makes it _fun,"_ Miranda said. "Just because we're half god doesn't mean we have to be spectacular all the time. Pass me the orange thread, it'll look good with the pink and yellow."

Lou Ellen chewed her cheek, but then she handed Miranda the thread.

"Scissors?" She asked.

"Scissors," Lou Ellen said handing them to her.

"Perfect," Miranda said. "Now look, to start off your bracelet, make a knot like this."

"Okay."

"Hey. Look a little bit more interested, or I'm not giving this bracelet to you."

"Fine," Lou Ellen said. "I'm emotionally involved now, I promise."

Miranda smiled and showed Lou Ellen how to braid the thread.

Lou Ellen hated the colour pink.

* * *

"I know you say that you know camp and don't want a tour-"

"If you know that already…"

"This wasn't there when you were here," Miranda said. "And it's kind of a secret."

"A secret?"

"Only the senior campers know."

"I'm curious now," Lou Ellen admitted.

Miranda smiled and skipped off into the woods, weaving through the trees as if there was a well-worn path on the ground that Lou Ellen couldn't see. That's when they got into a clearing, where a single massive oak supported three different treehouses on its branches- a big square wooden hut with a slanted roof and pots of flowers and curtains made of old bedsheets, connected by a rope bridge to a small, windowless cabin. Both of them were supervised by a small, higher cabin up top armed with a-

Something from the highest tree branch fired with a _pop_ and a red paintball exploded at Lou Ellen's feet.

"Sorry, sorry," Miranda said. "Security system. Thank goodness that Connor can't aim. It's just paint anyways, or so the Ares kids say..."

"Security system?"

"Miranda," someone called from the treehouse. It was Will Solace. "Did you bring an ankle biter here?"

"No, it's Lou," Miranda said.

"Cool," Will said. "Because I would've shot that paintball gun myself."

"Scary," Miranda said. "We're coming up. I'd like iced tea please, and Lou likes Coke."

"We've got Pepsi, that good?" Percy Jackson asked. "It's an act of protest against Mr. D, I don't like it either."

"That's fine," Lou Ellen smiled.

Someone got kicked out of the treehouse and grumbled their way across the bridge to the smallest tree house (storage house?).

"There's also food up there," Miranda said. "You know those crunchy vegan strawberry oat squares that I eat and that you steal all the time? There's a stash."

"Let's go up," Lou Ellen said.

Miranda smiled and took Lou Ellen's hand and dragged her to the ladder.

* * *

"Hey, check this out," Lou Ellen said, reaching down to pick up a seashell. Swimming at the same time as Percy Jackson was the absolute best. The water was so clear that you could see your toes, like in a Greek beach vacation poster. There were plenty of fish darting around everyone's ankles. The waves were gentle and regular, as if he was magnetic.

"That's a cool one," Miranda said. "With the colours and all."

Swimming with Percy Jackson made the beach perfect and awesome, but swimming with Miranda and her flowery bikini was even better.

"Take it," Lou Ellen said.

Miranda reached out and turned the shell in her fingers.

"It's white," she said. Lou Ellen held out her hand and Miranda put the shell back. The colours switched again from coral to yellow to pearly blue to pastel purple…

"That's awesome," Miranda said beaming.

"Pretty basic," Lou Ellen said lowering the shell back into the tide.

"It's still the first time I've seen you do magic for fun since you got here," Miranda said. "That's wonderful. That's progress."

Lou Ellen smiled.

"You think that _that_ was wonderful?" She asked. "I am _way_ too awesome for you to say that. Look at that kite, flying over the lava wall… just watch…"

She loved the sound of Miranda laughing and anticipated it with a smile.

* * *

"I didn't know that there was a New Year's party at camp," Lou Ellen said, putting dangling earrings in.

"I guess you missed it," Miranda said. "But Camp never does. The Dionysus kids made it particularly huge this year, but we never miss a chance to celebrate… you know. Living another year."

Lou Ellen nodded and put the second earring on.

"Thank you for letting me prep here," Lou Ellen said. "None… none of my siblings think that they want to go. I think they'll wander in eventually, but being pushy doesn't help them with social things."

"You're leading by example," Miranda said. "In that little black dress. That's nice."

"You're nice too," Lou Ellen said.

"What?"

"I mean…" Lou Ellen said. "You like this little black dress, but I'm _really_ liking that red number on you."

Miranda looked at Lou Ellen in shock. "Umm, I… I was saying that I thought that the leadership was nice."

"Oh," Lou Ellen said quietly. "Ah. I'm sorry."

"I'm not," Miranda said. "Thank you for bringing that up so I don't have too. You're a bit of a stunner."

Lou Ellen looked up and smiled, then looked down and blushed. "Don't."

"Is that a wand tucked into your chignon?" Miranda asked.

"Yes."

"That's a nice way to hide it," Miranda said. "But I like your hair down."

"Down?" Lou Ellen said.

"Down," Miranda said. She gently slid the wand out before picking at the bobby pins and clips. "Although that hides the earrings. And I liked those too." She slid a hand against Lou Ellen's cheek to part the hair, and then left her hand there, resting.

"They're beautiful," Lou Ellen said. "I like the necklace, did you borrow it from someone?"

Her fingers twisted around the single pearl.

"I did," Miranda said. "From Lacy in Cabin 10. This is Katie's lip gloss too."

Lou Ellen kissed her.

"I'm a big fan," Lou Ellen said quietly. "But only on you."

* * *

"Hey Lou," Miranda said. "Sit up, darling, sit up."

For all it was worth, Lou Ellen let her do it, but Miranda pulled her up.

"Okay, raise your arms," Miranda said. "Are you tired?"

Lou Ellen shook her head, and when Miranda stuck her arms in the air it was easier for Miranda to pull her sleepshirt off and to switch it off for a cleaner sweater. She found Lou Ellen's brush under her bed where she found it.

"I'll try not to pull," Miranda said.

"She hasn't been like this for long," Seraphin, Lou Ellen's second-in-command said. "She went to the counselor's meeting for the other day and it really drained her a lot. We didn't know what to do, she only responds to you when she's like this…"

"Thank you for getting me," Miranda said.

"She's brave, Lou Ellen. And she's wicked strong," Seraphin said.

"I know," Miranda said.

"No you don't. You say it because she's hurting right now, but she was like fire in the Titan's Army. She was our saviour and our protector in there. She trained the new recruits, she always negociated our hours to give us time to rest, she always talked bigger rations and food out of the generals, she picked up slack for our sick and weak links… She lied to Titans for us. She did everything and anything for us."

"It was bad, wasn't it?" Miranda asked. "Whatever happened to you guys in the Titan's Army…"

Seraphin nodded. "It was nothing like here for anyone, but we… the children of Hecate…"

"You don't need to tell me," Miranda said.

"Thank you," Seraphin said. "I hope that she will one day, so you'll know. But until then she just needs you to stay close."

* * *

"I'm glad you're up on your feet," Miranda said.

"Sorry?" Lou Ellen said, lacing her fingers with Miranda's.

"You just… you just weren't in great shape yesterday," Miranda said. "It'd been a few days since you slept, you were dehydrated and dazed…"

Lou Ellen's blood chilled.

"Oh yeah," Lou Ellen said quietly. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry," Miranda said. "Did I..?"

"No," Lou Ellen said. "I'm fine now."

* * *

Miranda was getting a bit pushy. It was one thing to make her girlfriend eat and drink and change her clothes and wash her hair, but there had to be more to life than that. And so Miranda wrapped up Lou Ellen in a big, warm woolen shawl and brought her outside, in the sunlight where the fresh air, bumblebees and harmless bacteria also liked to hang out, and took her outside for a walk. Lou Ellen was starring at the ground and she wasn't very chatty, but she was walking and that was fine by Miranda.

"Oh no," Miranda sighed. Lou Ellen looked up sluggishly.

"What's wrong?" Lou Ellen asked.

"That way," Miranda said. "On the ground. Oh gosh. Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh… It's a nest."

Miranda sprang into action and ran to a small stash of twigs and dried leaves, fallen near the edge of the forest.

"Oh gosh," Miranda said. "Oh gosh…"

"It must've fallen," Lou Ellen said.

"No, probably not," Miranda said. "Ever since the Battle of the Labyrinth we have new monsters in the woods. New… New DNA in the gene pool I guess."

"Our forest has a gene pool?"

"Of course," Miranda said. "It's its very own ecosystem. And the big monsters know to eat the little monsters, and since the little monsters eat the forest animals- so the big monsters know to leave the animals alone. See, the new monsters do this all the time- they disrupt everything, and when they try to fly out of the Woods, they just hit foliage and sometimes nests fall. Oh gosh…"

"Mira, this happens all the time," Lou Ellen said.

"Exactly, so my brothers and sisters and I are very good at fixing the messes," Miranda said. "A baby bird!"

Lou Ellen looked up and spotted a baby bird, disgusting and pink.

"Hush, hush, baby," Miranda said slowly approaching the remnants of the nest. "Hush…"

"Don't pick it up, the mother won't come back," Lou Ellen said.

"That's a myth," Miranda said. "The only bird with a developed sense of smell is the vulture, besides I don't think this little guy has a mother to go back to… And his wing is broken, oh… Okay, I need your help."

"Me?"

"Go to my cabin and check on the shelf near the door, there's a bunch of emergency shoeboxes and plastic bins. Find one about… this big, that's about the size of the original nest. There will be holes near the bottom, we put them there for drainage, it's normal. Grab one of our bird first aid kits too, they should be on the same shelf- make sure it's bird, not squirrel or rabbit or… Go, quick."

Lou Ellen went quickly.

oOoOo

"You've got this surgical precision," Lou Ellen said as she watched Miranda wrap a sterile bandage over the broken wing, down the bird's side so it couldn't flap, and under the working wing.

"It's just because the bird's letting me," Miranda said.

"Yeah, well, the bird's letting you," Lou Ellen said.

"They always do," Miranda said. "As long as they know it's because they're being loved, and because they are being cared for."

"I know they do," Lou Ellen said, sinking into her thoughts.

oOoOo

"Hey," Miranda said. "Can you pass me the eyedropper? I think he might drink some more."

Lou Ellen was falling asleep with open eyes. Again. Just a bit this time, and Miranda helped her think.

"Wake up. Bailey needs you."

"Bailey?"

"That's the bird's name," Miranda said. "Isn't it, little guy?"

"How do you know it's not a girl?" Lou Ellen said.

"Bailey's a unisex name," Miranda said. "And I'm switching between little guy and baby girl and babe. I've got my bases covered."

Lou Ellen smiled. She loved Miranda.

And Miranda loved the baby bird so much that she had hand-fed it for the last three hours and showed no signs of stopping.

oOoOo

"We have to keep her warm," Miranda said, tucking some yarn into the baby bird (fine, _Bailey_ )'s shoebox. "She's just a nestling, see? Shouldn't be out of the nest, not even near old enough to fly… I'll show Katie when she comes over for spring break, but I think we'll be able to get her back in the woods if she keeps taking fluids…"

"Is this what you always do?" Lou Ellen said. "Find little broken things and keep them?"

"Sometimes," Miranda said. She looked up. "Sometimes I also date extraordinary, beautiful women. Even if they think they're a charity case."

Lou Ellen's mouth opened.

"I care a lot about a lot of things, Ellie," Miranda said. "It's made me a bit observant."

"Don't tell me I'm wrong," Lou Ellen said.

"Is this because your siblings call me when you have your episodes?"

"Don't call them that."

"Then what are they?" Miranda asked. "I'm seriously asking here, that way I can use the right word. Or do the right thing. If I'm doing or saying something wrong."

"You're not doing anything wrong," Lou Ellen sighed. "You're perfect. You take care of me so much and so well and I'm so broken that I don't even remember it to thank you, and I don't remember anything about my… I guess they are episodes."

"That's not the point, Ellie," Miranda said. "To get thanks. I take care of you because I love you."

"And what do I do because I love you?" Lou Ellen said. "Nothing. I do nothing, but I love you _so much,_ Mira, so much it hurts sometimes. And you're so good, sometimes that's why I fall into these episodes because I'm so guilty and you don't even know it and you're too good to even ask or push and…"

"I got to Camp when I was twelve, three months before you, and I didn't eat," Miranda said.

Lou Ellen blinked.

"I didn't eat for, like, a week," Miranda said. "And my mother's a bit of a food goddess, so maybe that's why it didn't do as much damage as it should've, but I couldn't eat because I was so scared. And the paranoia was so bad and with the hunger too, that I hallucinated birds and bugs _everywhere_ around Camp. They were even in the showers. And when I finally ate I threw up and I couldn't keep anything down for another week, and then I thought that maybe I was being poisoned because like I said, I was kind of tripping. Katie spoon-fed me apple sauce in the infirmary with Will Solace smashing up multivitamins in the background, and that was my first meal at camp."

Miranda played with her hands before tucking in more yarn and newspaper into Bailey's makeshift nest.

"I notice a lot," Miranda said. "Because I care. And I think that all demigods are a little bit damaged. And that might me an understatement because some of us are the most severely messed up people I know, but all of us at least have something going on. You weren't here when I was at my worst. I'm here now, and this is your worst. It's a coincidence. But I know that if I ever get bad again, or next time that I get hurt really bad, you'll be there. So you're not some charity case or adopted pet, and we're not building up debts here, Ellie. We're being in love."

"I like being in love," Lou Ellen said.

"I do too," Miranda said. "I also like saving baby birds in the wild, so you're going to have to let me do both without taking it personally…"

Lou Ellen laughed, leaned over Bailey's nest, and kissed her.


End file.
